As Genocide Ravages Gaza, the Trump Administration Chases a Gaza Riviera! – Emre Güntekin

In Gaza, before the eyes of the world, a nation continues to be destroyed. Almost every day, hundreds of people lose their lives as a result of bombings and starvation. The imperialist powers, far from stopping the Zionist genocide, want the genocidal regime led by Netanyahu to finish “the job” in Gaza as quickly as possible and bring the matter to a conclusion.

According to a report by Birgün, at the cabinet meeting held on August 31, Netanyahu was quoted in the Israeli press as saying: “President Trump told me to withdraw from the partial (prisoner exchange) deal. Go into Gaza with full force and finish it.”  This is yet another example showing that the Zionist regime feels accountable only to its imperialist master, the United States.

On September 1, a 38-page plan leaked to the US press revealed the reason behind the Trump administration’s urgency. Trump’s desire to create a “Gaza Riviera” after the occupation of Gaza had already surfaced in recent months. The plan, named GREAT (Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust), was prepared by organizations such as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and the Boston Consulting Group, and is intended to be implemented over a ten-year period. According to this US-Israel joint plan, the region is to be transformed into a mega-city focused on high technology and tourism. For Palestinians who survive the genocide, two options are foreseen: voluntary exile to neighboring countries or living in internment camps. As for the confiscation of their property, Palestinians would be compensated with “digital tokens”, supposedly granting them the privilege of building ”a new life”! The fact that this plan was leaked right after a Gaza meeting at the White House attended by Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Tony Blair is, of course, no coincidence!

Although some criticisms are voiced among the imperialist powers, these rarely go beyond rhetorical gestures aimed at appeasing domestic public opinion opposed to genocide. In Middle Eastern countries, hypocrisy is in full swing. The Gulf regimes are behind the genocide, and the fact that they have no concern about any rising internal opposition makes their task easier. Signs suggest that the Saudi regime will be one of the biggest financiers of the new Gaza project of the Trump administration that is planned to be built after ethnic cleansing.

The Erdoğan regime, as we saw in the extraordinary parliamentary session held to discuss Israel’s assault on Gaza, repeats the same familiar refrains while carefully avoiding any move that might trouble Israel or the Trump regime, which backs Erdoğan infinitely. At the very least, even the proposal raised by Özgür Özel that was to condemn the Trump administration and to intervene in all cases against Israel at the International Court of Justice remains in speech only.

Amid this silence, the Palestinian people are confronted with a struggle for existence. On August 23, the UN officially declared Gaza a famine zone. Already 500,000 people face the danger of starvation, and by the end of September this number is expected to exceed 640,000. At the UN Security Council meeting on August 27, although all members other than the United States agreed that Gaza is facing a human-made famine, they still failed to force Washington to back down.

Today (September 1), schools are opening in Palestine, just like in Turkey. According to Middle East Eye, 660,000 children will not be able to attend school, since 80% of schools have been destroyed by Israeli attacks. For the third year in a row since the occupation began in 2022, Palestinian children will be deprived of their right to education. This is also evidence that Zionism is occupying and expropriating not only the land but also the very future of the Palestinian people. US imperialism, through its decisions, is directly complicit in this seizure. With the latest decision by the Trump administration, the visa applications of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians—from students to those seeking medical treatment—have been canceled.

It is obvious that imperialist butchers like Trump and Netanyahu do not care about the humanitarian dimension of pushing nearly 2 million people to death through hunger and bombardment. Even their international partners, when voicing criticism, do so cautiously, unwilling to incur the wrath of their masters. The fate of the Palestinian people will ultimately be determined by when this silence is broken. The international working class must pressure its own ruling classes to oppose the Zionist massacre and cut off support for the Netanyahu regime. If necessary, as has occasionally been seen in past struggles, production must halt.